There’s more to semiconductor lithography than directing photons to the wafer. For the photoresist in particular, there’s still a lot of work to be done before high-NA can be put into practice.
Unlike in the transition from immersion to EUV lithography, much remains the same in the move to high-NA lithography. Many technologies required for the lithographic process, such as photomasks and metrology equipment, have to evolve, but what else is new in this industry.
However, one aspect might require a leap rather than a step: the photoresist. It doesn’t matter how well ASML manages to project a pattern onto the wafer, ultimately what matters is the sharpness of the photo after it’s been developed. That sharpness is largely determined by a complex interaction between the chemistry of the resist and the exposure settings of ASML’s scanner. Etching and deposition also play an important role, obviously.
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